"THIS. IS. SPARTA!" and "This is madness!"
Those lines have been repeated over and over to the point that the words have lost all meaning.So I've decided to take a look back and unearth facts about the movie, 300, which is very loosely based on the historical Spartans' last stand against a Persian army.
SPOILERS EVERYWHERE.
But mostly it's a chance to show these glistening dudes kill some other dudes.
And just a tinge of racial insensitivity.
1. As a kid, the original writer was inspired by the Spartans because he learned that the hero didn't always win and sometimes they had to sacrifice themselves.
He learned those lessons from Rudolph Maté 1962 film The 300 Spartans.
2. The line "Come back with your shield, or on it" was a SAVAGE real historical phrase that was popular among Spartan women. Turns out that they'd actually say it to their husbands and sons.
Turns out that it was also okay for soldiers to lose their swords but not their shields because it'd endanger other soldiers.
3. The reason the dudes look so jacked was because they underwent 8-week training program – the guy who trained them, Marc Twight, is a world-record-holding professional mountain climber and said it was the hardest he's ever pushed anyone.
Gerald Butler said the training was the most difficult thing he's ever done in his life.
4. Turns out that the movie was so popular the director said that he wants to do the same stylistic treatment to other wars.
“I think I mentioned that we talked about the Revolutionary War version, and we talked about the Alamo, and we’ve talked about there’s a battle in China, a ‘Lost Legion’ kind of concept, any of those kinds of things are on the table.”
5. Historically, Xerxes was a bit of an idiot because he sent his soldiers to "The Gates Of Hell" which was WELL-KNOWN to be a deathtrap.
He took a week before attacking and gave his enemies the chance to fortify the pass.
6. This was Magneto's first movie.
It was actor Michael Fassbender's feature film debut.
7. "Then we will fight in the shade" is an actual historical quote from the Spartan warrior Dienekes after being warned about the sheer number of incoming enemy arrows.
Greek soliders use that phrase as emblems on their uniforms – in Greek: "Tha palepsoume sti skià."
8. Leonidas tells the treacherous hunchback "may you live forever" because in Spartan culture it's a dishonor to die anywhere outside of battle.
AKA "Live long and die a coward."
9. The iconic look of the film came from an effect called "the crush" where "you crush the black content of the image and enhance the color saturation to change the contrast ratio of the film."
At least that's the way that producer Jeffrey Silver explained it.
10. If you count closely, you see that the movie's body count is 585.
That's gotta be some sort of record.
11. A lot of the weapons were actually recycled from other war epic films like Troy and Alexander.
They had to save costs.
12. The Oracle dancing scene was done by the actress dancing underwater and then CGI-ing it to look like she's on land.
13. Lena Headey actually slapped director Zack Snyder to test it out and make sure she wouldn't slap her co-stars too hard.
If you'll excuse me, I'm going to re-watch this bad boy.
COMMENTand tell us the most awesome part of 300!
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